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| President Barack Obama |
President Barack Obama kicked off his campaign to sell his new immigration plan to
the American public Friday, making a pitch for the executive actions that will give millions of illegal immigrants new protections while pledging to continue to push for broader legislation.
Mr. Obama’s decision to act unilaterally on immigration — allowing up to five million undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and work legally without threat of deportation — came after months of congressional gridlock, in which a broad immigration overhaul that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support died in the Republican-controlled House.
But the president’s executive action — and call for congressional action — thrust Republicans into a political challenge of their own. In the lead-up to his announcement and in the hours after, Republicans struggled to balance fighting what they view as an abuse of presidential power while still offering a carefully moderated response that does not damage the party’s standing with Latino voters, the nation’s fastest-growing minority, or imperil its governing agenda next year, when it controls both chambers.
So Republicans focused their fury on the president, making clear their anger and frustration at what they call “executive amnesty.” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, warned against the president’s “brazen power grab.”
“The president is the one who is acting provocatively, not the Congress,”
Mr. Sessions said. “The last thing this Congress wants to do is have this kind of fight, but at some point the institution has to defend itself.”
Nonetheless, Republican leaders have also warned their members against embarking on a strategy that could lead to a government shutdown, as well as cautioning them against talking about impeaching the president.
“Leadership in both the House and the Senate have been clear that talk of impeachment, talk of a shutdown, is not productive, doesn’t solve the problem,” said Pat Tiberi, Republican of Ohio, a close ally of Mr. Boehner.
But Mr. Tiberi also blamed the White House for playing politics with a serious issue, saying: “What did the president do? He pulled the pin on the grenade two weeks after the election, as our leadership was trying to extend the olive branch of working together.
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Not every Republican, however, is displaying the preferred Republican message of restraint. Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, has suggested that, depending on what exactly Mr. Obama undertakes, everything from impeachment to prison could be on the table.
And Representative Steve King — an outspoken opponent of an immigration overhaul who headed to the southern border on Friday with Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota — said censuring the president or even shutting down the government were other possible options.
EU-Digest
